December 10, 2007
Monday AM

Some of the same people on these committees were the biggest critics of the jewelry stores. And now there is talk of glamorizing Ketchikan's seedy past and turning Newtown into a theme park, (lots better than jewelry stores right)? This is ludicrous and validates the legitimacy of the jewelry stores at least they are what they are, and are not trying to fool anyone.

The article I read in the paper on the themes for the Newtown area, were laughable. Is that the best we can do - a theme park? And the downtown steering committee needs to realize they just dodged a bullet with the jewelry store initiative. I would suggest you concentrate on that issue and not let that get out of hand again. Solidify what you have and do not get sidetracked with a theme, do municipal revenue reports, continuously reiterate the benefits of the industries we rely on and remind the general public on the benefits of the visitor industry, Ketchikan is its own "theme" to try to create an artificial history is going to be transparent and not going to fool any of the visitors that come to Alaska. They are more sophisticated that that.

I was on the Citizens for a Positive Economy committee. In fact I was the chairman and was not contacted for the theme park conversation so I should save my initial criticism until I fully understand this whole "theme" park approach. But I could not help it, this struck me as so ridiculous I had to say something. We need to let the business people who own their businesses worry about what, where, and how they want to sell their products and not try to put a silly costume on our town. Because a silly costume is just that , a silly costume.

Charles Edwardson
Ketchikan, AK

Received December 07, 2007 - Published December 10, 2007

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